Max Emil Friedrich von Stephanitz was a cavalry captain (rittmeister), but his enduring legacy was as a dog breeder and historian of German dog breeds. His best known book is (available here):

Der Deutsche Schäferhund in Wort und Bild (1921) Ant. Kämpfe, Jena.

This was translated into English as:

The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture (1923), translated by J. Schwabacher.

In this book von Stephanitz argued that the German Shepherd was a specific type of shepherd or herdsman's dog. Indeed, over the previous two decades he had tried to standardize the German Shepherd breed as a working dog, rather than as a show dog in the British tradition of the 19th century.

As part of his argument, he presented a stammbaum of related breeds.

The second picture shows the genealogy from the English translation.

Note that the German Shepherd is not involved in a recent reticulate history, as are all of the herdsman's breeds. This is part of von Stephanitz's argument for the importance of preserving the German Shepherd's identity.